From today's Wall Street Journal. URL is at the bottom, but it's by subscription only (and well worth the $50/year).
...
May 15, 2000
Commentary
Moms' March Had One Degree Of Separation From Clintons
By Lisa Schiffren, a full-time mother and a member of the board of the Independent Women's Forum.
Motherhood is one of the things politicians are most eager to co-opt. So Americans flipping on the TV yesterday were subjected to endless coverage of righteous marchers declaiming earnestly about the evils of guns, and led by those towering moral leaders, Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton.
Donna Dees-Thomases, the organizer of the Million Mom March, is a putative political newcomer. She likes to be considered, as Time magazine described her, "a housewife and mother of two young children, from New Jersey." And she appears to be an intuitive genius at politicizing motherhood.
For one thing, even though a mere 100,000 marchers were expected, the "Million Mom" moniker conveyed intimidating political heft. For another, she rustled up vast press coverage, almost all entirely sympathetic and willing to take her assertions at face value. She pitched perfectly to potential marchers and the media by talking about the "frustration of moms" at gun violence, and describing her willingness to spend the past year organizing this movement as a pure outgrowth of her "maternal instinct."
Indeed, in myriad interviews, Mrs. Dees-Thomases attributed her crusade to watching the terrible footage of small children being led out of the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Calif., last summer, after a gunman opened fire in the lobby, killing several kids. She has children that age, so naturally she immediately reserved the Washington Mall for a march the following Mother's Day.
I'm embarrassed to say that, even though I am a mom with children at a Jewish preschool, who was also deeply horrified by that shooting, I didn't think of organizing a march. It would have been fun, especially if we didn't have to drag along the double-strollers, snacks and changing pads. But our school immediately sent letters advising parents that it was instituting antiterrorism measures. Given the actual goal of protecting children, that seemed to be a bit more on point.
You may have guessed by now that Mrs. Dees-Thomases is not precisely a housewife. She is currently on leave from her job as a publicist at CBS, where she now works for David Letterman and previously worked for Dan Rather. That explains her media savvy and contacts. It also happens that she is the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases, Hillary Clinton's closest friend, long-time political strategist, heavy-handed enforcer, and, frequently, attorney of record. Ms. Thomases is known to have been summoned to Arkansas to scare off women threatening to sue or squeal on President Clinton. She was Mrs. Clinton's attorney through part of the Whitewater scandal, reportedly so that Hillary could confide in her without fear of subpoena. She was active in both Clinton campaigns, and is said to be influential in this year's Senate campaign. Oddly-or not-only two of the two-dozen newspaper articles I read on the march beforehand mentioned this interesting relationship.
Call me believer in the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, but my guess is that Donna Dees-Thomases didn't act alone: The event was a White House put-up job. When a novice organizes a major media event and putative "grassroots movement" perfectly orchestrated to promote an issue that the Clinton administration, senatorial candidate Mrs. Clinton, and presidential candidate Al Gore wish to raise during this election cycle, it is worth noting that the organizer, Mrs. Dees-Thomases, has but one degree of separation from the Clintons. It is stunning that almost no reporters have asked what advice and assistance Mrs. Dees-Thomases received from her sister-in-law, and from the Clinton White House.
Why, you may wonder, is gun control so important to the permanent Clinton campaign? As an issue, it has two fabulous attributes. It is essentially, free, unlike policies that win votes by redistributing the money of the voting classes. And, more importantly, it is a quintessential gender-gap issue. Democrats depend on what has been an almost automatic majority of women's votes. But Mrs. Clinton has actually been behind among women voters in New York, and George W. Bush appears to be giving Al Gore more of a run than Republicans usually do for women's votes nationwide.
It happens that a large majority (73%, according to some surveys) of women are in favor of additional gun controls. So ginning up the issue-starting by creating unfounded fears about the likelihood that middle-class children will be killed by random gun violence-is a ploy to win those necessary women's votes.
The Million Mom March has all of the hallmarks of a classic Clinton issues campaign. As with health care in 1992, they are manufacturing a crisis where there is none, shamelessly exaggerating and distorting the facts. Contrary to what we heard intoned solemnly and repeatedly this weekend, gun deaths among children are at an all-time low, despite the fact that gun ownership is at an all-time high. Those deaths have declined roughly 30% in the past decade, due largely to enforcement of current laws and effective gun-safety campaigns.
The Million Mom ladies and the Clinton administration claim that "thirteen children die every day from guns." But fewer than 3% of them are under 10 years old. Seventy percent of the dead children are 17-19 year-olds killed in gang fights. That is not a happy picture-but it's far from the innocent toddler carnage the Clintons want you to envision.
To be sure, any needless death of a child is tragic. But, as all mothers know, the world is full of useful things that are safe when used properly but that must be kept from small children. Kitchen equipment, cleaning liquids and power tools come to mind. And of course, thousands more children die in car, swimming pool and bicycle accidents than from guns.
The gun control mantra is not going to solve problems as complicated as those that have contributed to the much-publicized child killings over the past year. Neo-Nazi violence in California, teenage alienation and evil at Columbine, Colo., and the myriad social pathologies that led a damaged six-year-old in Michigan to kill a classmate, will not yield to trigger locks and waiting periods.
Life is a little more complicated than the moms on the mall and the Clinton campaign want us to believe. But your mother told you that, didn't she?
URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB958346057418977851.djm
Copyright © 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription Agreement and copyright laws.
For information about subscribing, go to http://wsj.com
------------------
Protect your Right to Keep and Bear Arms!
[This message has been edited by Gorthaur (edited May 15, 2000).]
...
May 15, 2000
Commentary
Moms' March Had One Degree Of Separation From Clintons
By Lisa Schiffren, a full-time mother and a member of the board of the Independent Women's Forum.
Motherhood is one of the things politicians are most eager to co-opt. So Americans flipping on the TV yesterday were subjected to endless coverage of righteous marchers declaiming earnestly about the evils of guns, and led by those towering moral leaders, Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton.
Donna Dees-Thomases, the organizer of the Million Mom March, is a putative political newcomer. She likes to be considered, as Time magazine described her, "a housewife and mother of two young children, from New Jersey." And she appears to be an intuitive genius at politicizing motherhood.
For one thing, even though a mere 100,000 marchers were expected, the "Million Mom" moniker conveyed intimidating political heft. For another, she rustled up vast press coverage, almost all entirely sympathetic and willing to take her assertions at face value. She pitched perfectly to potential marchers and the media by talking about the "frustration of moms" at gun violence, and describing her willingness to spend the past year organizing this movement as a pure outgrowth of her "maternal instinct."
Indeed, in myriad interviews, Mrs. Dees-Thomases attributed her crusade to watching the terrible footage of small children being led out of the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Calif., last summer, after a gunman opened fire in the lobby, killing several kids. She has children that age, so naturally she immediately reserved the Washington Mall for a march the following Mother's Day.
I'm embarrassed to say that, even though I am a mom with children at a Jewish preschool, who was also deeply horrified by that shooting, I didn't think of organizing a march. It would have been fun, especially if we didn't have to drag along the double-strollers, snacks and changing pads. But our school immediately sent letters advising parents that it was instituting antiterrorism measures. Given the actual goal of protecting children, that seemed to be a bit more on point.
You may have guessed by now that Mrs. Dees-Thomases is not precisely a housewife. She is currently on leave from her job as a publicist at CBS, where she now works for David Letterman and previously worked for Dan Rather. That explains her media savvy and contacts. It also happens that she is the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases, Hillary Clinton's closest friend, long-time political strategist, heavy-handed enforcer, and, frequently, attorney of record. Ms. Thomases is known to have been summoned to Arkansas to scare off women threatening to sue or squeal on President Clinton. She was Mrs. Clinton's attorney through part of the Whitewater scandal, reportedly so that Hillary could confide in her without fear of subpoena. She was active in both Clinton campaigns, and is said to be influential in this year's Senate campaign. Oddly-or not-only two of the two-dozen newspaper articles I read on the march beforehand mentioned this interesting relationship.
Call me believer in the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, but my guess is that Donna Dees-Thomases didn't act alone: The event was a White House put-up job. When a novice organizes a major media event and putative "grassroots movement" perfectly orchestrated to promote an issue that the Clinton administration, senatorial candidate Mrs. Clinton, and presidential candidate Al Gore wish to raise during this election cycle, it is worth noting that the organizer, Mrs. Dees-Thomases, has but one degree of separation from the Clintons. It is stunning that almost no reporters have asked what advice and assistance Mrs. Dees-Thomases received from her sister-in-law, and from the Clinton White House.
Why, you may wonder, is gun control so important to the permanent Clinton campaign? As an issue, it has two fabulous attributes. It is essentially, free, unlike policies that win votes by redistributing the money of the voting classes. And, more importantly, it is a quintessential gender-gap issue. Democrats depend on what has been an almost automatic majority of women's votes. But Mrs. Clinton has actually been behind among women voters in New York, and George W. Bush appears to be giving Al Gore more of a run than Republicans usually do for women's votes nationwide.
It happens that a large majority (73%, according to some surveys) of women are in favor of additional gun controls. So ginning up the issue-starting by creating unfounded fears about the likelihood that middle-class children will be killed by random gun violence-is a ploy to win those necessary women's votes.
The Million Mom March has all of the hallmarks of a classic Clinton issues campaign. As with health care in 1992, they are manufacturing a crisis where there is none, shamelessly exaggerating and distorting the facts. Contrary to what we heard intoned solemnly and repeatedly this weekend, gun deaths among children are at an all-time low, despite the fact that gun ownership is at an all-time high. Those deaths have declined roughly 30% in the past decade, due largely to enforcement of current laws and effective gun-safety campaigns.
The Million Mom ladies and the Clinton administration claim that "thirteen children die every day from guns." But fewer than 3% of them are under 10 years old. Seventy percent of the dead children are 17-19 year-olds killed in gang fights. That is not a happy picture-but it's far from the innocent toddler carnage the Clintons want you to envision.
To be sure, any needless death of a child is tragic. But, as all mothers know, the world is full of useful things that are safe when used properly but that must be kept from small children. Kitchen equipment, cleaning liquids and power tools come to mind. And of course, thousands more children die in car, swimming pool and bicycle accidents than from guns.
The gun control mantra is not going to solve problems as complicated as those that have contributed to the much-publicized child killings over the past year. Neo-Nazi violence in California, teenage alienation and evil at Columbine, Colo., and the myriad social pathologies that led a damaged six-year-old in Michigan to kill a classmate, will not yield to trigger locks and waiting periods.
Life is a little more complicated than the moms on the mall and the Clinton campaign want us to believe. But your mother told you that, didn't she?
URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB958346057418977851.djm
Copyright © 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription Agreement and copyright laws.
For information about subscribing, go to http://wsj.com
------------------
Protect your Right to Keep and Bear Arms!
[This message has been edited by Gorthaur (edited May 15, 2000).]